Much more than results: towards a fluidity of practice

This chapter focuses on the ways in which a mentor can support a teacher’s professional maturation and help them to move from being competent, as defined by meeting the relevant General Teaching Council of Scotland’s teacher standards, towards the highest level of teaching expertise, as described by various models of development. Using inclusion as an example of an aspect of teaching that changes with increasing professional maturation, the chapter considers the factors that determine a teacher’s mentoring needs. Key accounts of the stages of teacher development are collated to provide a summary of the shifts in teaching that happen over time, with the associated understanding of inclusive teaching, and how movement to successive stages can be promoted by a mentor. It then looks at the mechanisms by which mentors can meet teachers’ needs in such a way as to promote optimal professional development at different stages of a teacher’s career.